From a makeshift pulpit inside an Indiana Quality Inn, a baby-faced priest angrily denounces the Jews, saying they mean to "destroy all Christian nations."In offices in State Line, Pa., an intense, bespectacled man tirelessly recounts how the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia "predicts the anti-Christ will come from Jewry" and warns of the Jews' role in the coming "New World Order."

At a gathering near the Philadelphia airport, men in priests' collars and brown monk's robes rage against the "Judeo-Masonic" conspiracy to destroy the Catholic Church, the "Marxist-Jewish" scheme to wreck American schools, and even an elaborate 9/11 plot, "predicted by the Blessed Virgin Mary 84 years ago."

For most Americans, the world of "radical traditionalist Catholicism" is so remote and little-known -- it entered the nation's consciousness, just barely, with revelations about the strident anti-Semitism of actor Mel Gibson and his father, Hutton -- that it may seem wholly irrelevant to the modern world. Is it really important what a group of people, many excommunicated and most gathered behind the walls of their monasteries and other institutions, think about the Jews? That many believe there was no Holocaust? That some say every pope since 1958 has been illegitimate, and a few even insist the real pope has been kidnapped?

The fact is, it does matter. As explained in a remarkable and sweeping story by the Intelligence Report's Heidi Beirich, the best estimates suggest there are 100,000 radical traditionalists in America, a number that appears to be growing. And while the size of this movement is dwarfed by the 70 million mainstream Catholics in this country, these energetic men and women are having an influence.

For one thing, the open anti-Semitism that characterizes the movement is leaking into other subcultures, some of them especially dangerous.

Last September, Father Nicholas Gruner, leader of the International Fatima Rosary Crusade and a key player in the radical traditionalist milieu, celebrated a special morning Mass at the Washington, D.C., conference of The Barnes Review, a Holocaust denial journal, also attended by neo-Nazis and other white supremacists. In February 2006, John Sharpe, head of the Legion of St. Louis and another leading radical traditionalist, sold books at a conference of the racist magazine American Renaissance that also played host to neo-Nazi David Duke. (Last December, Duke spoke to a Holocaust denial conference hosted by the Iranian government.)

In one case, the simmering anti-Semitism of the radical traditionalists may even have affected the thinking of a serial-killing terrorist. A new book by Maryanne Vollers, Lone Wolf: Eric Rudolph: Murder, Myth, and the Pursuit of an American Outlaw, suggests that Rudolph may have been influenced by radical traditionalism, in addition to his known ties to the neo-Nazi theology of Christian Identity.

The movement also may be gaining influence on the larger political scene. A case in point is that of Christopher Ferrara, leader of the American Catholic Lawyers Association. Ferrara, who writes for the anti-Semitic, radical traditionalist journal The Remnant, was the lawyer for the family of Terri Schiavo and a key player, along with Republican and Christian Right leaders, in getting Congress to pass a law to keep the severely brain-damaged woman alive. It was later overturned.

In the United States, we are accustomed to thinking of race as the critical fault line splitting our society. But in the world at large, religion is just as divisive.

From Iraq to the former Yugoslavia to uncounted other regions, religiously based violence has recently torn apart societies that once included people of different faiths living together in peace. Even in the United States, with its strong tradition of religious pluralism, religious conflicts seem to be increasing almost yearly.

One would think that radical traditionalists would understand this. After all, Catholics historically have been among the most despised minorities in America, with hatred of "papists" driving the Know Nothing party in the 1850s and swelling the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s to almost 4 million members. The same kind of demonization that Catholics were subjected to in the past is now being practiced by extremist Catholics who describe all Jews as the "synagogue of Satan."

Friday, January 19, 2007

OK...Everyone else is headlining Bush's low popularity numbers, lower in fact than Cheney's. The interesting thing to me is that most Republicans aren't convinced that the current escalation plan will work, and that, in spite of that, most of them support it anyway.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Zakaria Al-Zubaidi, leader of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, told the Arab Israeli weekly Kul al-Arab that the main square of the refugee camp in Jenin, the West Bank, will be henceforth be called after the "martyr leader Saddam Hussein" who had given much to the Palestinians and particularly to the Jenin refugee camp. He said that this would ensure that Saddam's name will remain forever engraved in the memory of the Palestinian people.

Question: "You were formerly Hizbullah secretary-general. Is the [situation in Lebanon] within the strategic framework of Hizbullah? Does Hizbullah have an outlined and prepared plan that is being implemented today? Why do you think Hizbullah has become a source of anxiety for the Lebanese? "Al-Tufeili: "It wasn't like this in the beginning. Hizbullah's activity was limited to resistance [operations]... But, unfortunately, the problem has developed today to the point where they have succeeded in changing Hizbullah from a resistance force into a tool to be used in [whatever] direction they want."Question: "Does this mean that Hizbullah does not make its own decisions, and that its orders come from outside [Lebanon]?"Al-Tufeili: "Yes, Hizbullah is a tool, and it is an integral part of the Iranian intelligence apparatus. Unfortunately, all the elements in the [Lebanese] arena have become tools, and take orders from outside [Lebanon]..."

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

"Uzi Mahnaimi has reported once again in The Sunday Times that Israel is about to attack Iran, this time with tactical nuclear weapons. Were we to believe the reports of Mr Mahnaimi, both Syria and Iran would have been wiped out by Israel several times. In 2005 he reported that Israel was preparing to attack Iran in March of 2006, with a similar scenario to the one that he and Sarah Baxter report now. The fact that Israel didn't attack Iran does not prevent Mahnaimi from repeating the same fable again, nor does it prevent media all over the world from quoting him as though he is a trustworthy source and reliable authority. In September of 2006, Mahnaimi had also reported that Israel is preparing to attack Syria and Iran. In 2000, Mahnaimi reported that Israel was going to attack Syria if the peace talks with the Palestinians collapsed. The talks collapsed, but there was no attack. Strangely, Mahnaimi did not lose either his credibility or his job.

"Mahnaimi's greatest coup was a story he initiated apparently in 1998, though it may have had its origin in a science fiction story published in the Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot. According to this fantasy, Israel was developing a genetically programmed "ethnic bomb" - a bacteriological warfare agent that would target only Arabs. Not only did this story have no basis in fact, it was also a scientific impossibility that should not have been believed by anyone who had taken an introductory course in human genetic. Nonetheless, this absurd lie was parroted in respectable newspapers and is still cited by Web sites like "Global Research" and "anti-Zionist" cites like Radio Islam.

"Guysen news has published a review of the journalistic career of the imaginative Mr. Mahnaimi, a discussion of his political affiliations and possible motives for inventing these tall tales. It is worth a read. In English; In French

"The question that must be asked is not why Mahnaimi continues to write this rubbish, or even why the Sunday Telegraph continues to publish it. The world and especially the Middle East, have never lacked for liars and sensation mongers. The question is, why do so many journals pounce on this material so eagerly? Within hours, this absurd fib, invented by a man with a well-earned reputation for confabulation, had made its way around the world. Despite Israeli government denials, it elicited a bellicose threat from Iran. Similarly, when Robert Fisk reported in the Independent, on trumped up evidence, that Israel had used nuclear weapons in Lebanon, it created a sensation. The story was repeated everywhere in huge headlines. The denials were ignored, and the announcement by the UN that there was no basis for the allegations got hardly any attention at all. The damage was done."

Sunday, January 7, 2007

Kamm reveals Chomsky's deliberate distortion of PM Olmert's speech to Congress last week. Olmert spoke of the need for land concessions to achieve peace, whereas Chomsky takes phrases of the speech out of context to depict the speech as endorsing a "Greater Israel" strategy and refusing to give up land.

"Israel spends $110 on scientific research per year per person while the same figure for the Arab world is $2. Knowledge makes Israel grow by 5.2 per cent a year while "rates of productivity (the average production of one worker) in Arab countries were negative to a large and increasing extent in oil-producing countries during the 1980s and 90s (World Bank; Arab Development Report).

"Facts cannot be denied: The state of Israel now has six universities ranked as among the best on the face of the planet. Hebrew University Jerusalem is in the top-100. Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University and Weizmann Institute of Science are in the top-200. Bar Ilan University and Ben Gurion University are in the top-300. The Arab League does not have a single university in the top-400 (http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking.htm). One in two Arab women can neither read nor write."

Thursday, January 4, 2007

Mr. Lipset’s convictions were shaped early, in the cauldron of leftist politics in New York City in the 1930s, a time when his poor immigrant family urged him to study dentistry in order to take over his uncle’s lucrative practice. Instead, as a young Trotskyist at City College, he became fascinated with the question of why the United States never had a major socialist party.

As he metamorphosed from political partisan to social scientist, his quest for an answer to that question — as well as the many others that logically followed — resulted in dozens of books and hundreds of articles. He became known for his argument that America’s ideology of individualism precluded socialism in the European form.

Francis Fukuyama, the political philosopher, wrote in 1997 in The New York Times Book Review that Mr. Lipset’s insights into ways that America was different from other nations made him “the most thoughtful contemporary authority on American exceptionalism.”

The Magen Abraham central synagogue is located in the heart of Beirut, not far from the offices of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. The synagogue is in grave need of repair but one can still see the Magen David that adorns every column of the building. Magen Abraham once symbolized the splendor of the city's opulent Jewish community. Now, it is roofless and the wind howls through it, symbolizing the remnants of the Jewish community that remain in Beirut. However, Aaron-Micael Beydoun, a 21-year-old American Muslim of Lebanese descent, recently launched a campaign to renovate the site. In his blog,"thejewsoflebanon.org," Beydoun also presents updated information regarding the besieged Jewish community in Lebanon. Almost 60 years after the establishment of the state of Israel, only a few dozen Jews remain in Beirut and other parts of the country. They keep their religious identity a secret, fearing that exposure might cause them harm in the currently tense situation in Lebanon. A tourist, who visited Beirut on Yom Kippur a year and a half ago, told Haaretz that he saw a few Jews visiting the graves of their loved ones to pray. They refused to talk to him. Community representatives do not appear in official ceremonies or public events, and any attempt to contact them is met by icy refusal. But their community is still a part of Lebanon's religious tapestry. The Jewish community is one of 17 religious groups officially recognized in that nation.

Teenage twin sisters who witnessed the murder of their policeman father told TotallyJewish.com of their relief after the Home Office deferred plans to deport them back to Kyrgyzstan.Kamila and Karina Kaya, 18, who fled the former Soviet Republic in fear of their lives after both their parents were killed, fear that they would be forced into prostitution or murdered themselves if they had to return.

But after a campaign by members of the Jewish community of Birmingham and a last-ditch intervention by the Israeli Embassy just hours before they were due to be removed from the UK on Tuesday, the Home Office delayed their deportation for seven weeks. Authorities in Israel have agreed in principle to let the girls make aliyah and are now just waiting to see their birth certificates before giving them the green light to move there.

A neo-Nazi organization that was poised to purchase a hotel in a town in Germany and turn it into a "eugenics indoctrination centre" has been outbid by local residents.People in Delmenhorst near Bremen held bake sales and staged fund-raising barbecues to scrape together money (EUR 3m) to thwart a rich neo-Nazi lawyer's organisation from buying property in their town.

The small German city of Delmenhorst in Lower Saxony has paid an overinflated price for a vacant hotel to keep neo-Nazis from using it as a right-wing center.On Wednesday, Delmenhorst City Council paid three million euros ($4 million) for the Hotel am Stadtpark. Nearly a third of the money was collected by the city's 75,000 residents to stop the neo-Nazis moving into town.

Delmenhorst's mayor, Patrick de La Lanne, described the purchase as a victory.

"We did it!. We have kept the Nazis out of our town," La Lanne said.Delmenhorst residents fought the supposed plans by a well-known far-right lawyer Jürgen Rieger to buy the vacant hotel and convert it into a meeting point and training site for neo-Nazi groups.

Rieger reportedly offered 3.4 million euros for the site. The hotel's vendor was persuaded to accept slightly less from the civic-action group.

Chief rabbi seeks to amend conversion lawRabbi Shlomo Amar leading enthused lobby of support for amendment revoking automatic right of return from converts to Judaism. Amar meets with senior ministers, Knesset members to garner support

Efforts to advance legislation on conversion: Israel’s Chief Rabbi ShlomoAmar is continuing efforts to advance amendments to the Conversion Law, andrecently met with senior cabinet ministers and members of Knesset on the issue...

According to the suggested amendment, conversion will no longer automatically attain the right of return for the convert – regardless of whether it was an Orthodox, Reform or Conservative procedure.

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

As part of an official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV program reporting on the uniform PA condemnations of the hanging of Saddam Hussein, PA TV focused on the following giant street poster with the faces of Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat:

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Police searched on Thursday for a man who hasdisappeared months after testifying he was tortured by a policeman duringArgentina's military dictatorship, the second "Dirty War" witness to gomissing.Government officials said President Nestor Kirchner had postponed aplanned trip to coordinate police efforts to locate Luis Gerez, a 51-year-oldconstruction worker who vanished on Wednesday, according to familymembers.Gerez was a witness earlier this year in a congressionalinvestigation probing whether a former police chief accused of rights abuses andrecently elected to Congress should be allowed to take his seat.Gerez'stestimony proved crucial and led lawmakers to vote to prevent Luis Patti fromassuming office."If Gerez isn't found, this obviously means the situation isgetting worse," said Edgardo Binstock, a Buenos Aires provincial governmentofficial.

Between 11,000 and 30,000 innocent people were killed by government death squads in the "Dirty War" of 1976 - 1983. Read the rest.

Advisor to President Ahmadinejad claims Nazi leader was Jew who conspired with USSR and Britain to establish Jewish state

Just when you thought the Iranian leadership could stoop no further: Mohammad Ali Ramin, a top advisor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, claimed in an interview with Iranian website Baztab that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's parents were both Jewish and that Hitler himself was one of the founders of the State of Israel.

An anti-Israel article , which appeared last week in a British newspaper, the Independent, claimed Christmas was a celebration of the "birth pains of a Palestinian refugee in Bethlehem" (Mary), before launching into an attack on Israel 's checkpoints in the West Bank.

Monday, January 1, 2007

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi, an Indian historian, says he may have found a genetic link between members of his clan in northern India, the now-Muslim Afridi Pathans, and one of the Ten Lost Tribes.

"There were those who looked at this research as part of a big Zionist conspiracy against Islam," said Aafreedi, who is currently conducting research at Tel Aviv University into possible Israelite descent among certain Muslim Indian groups. "They felt I was trying to deprive Islam of its bravest followers, the Pathans, by converting them to Judaism. They felt that my convincing them of their Jewish heritage was just another form of conversion."

According to Aafreedi's study, which was published as an e-book, about 650 out of the 1,500 members of the Afridi Pathan clan in Malihabad, India, may possess genetic material shared by nearly 40 percent of Jews worldwide. If confirmed, the findings would support the clan's connection to the tribe of Ephraim, Aafreedi said. A related Indian Pathan group numbering some 800 people was not tested for the project.